Chapter Seven: The Fall and the Start: Rin’s POV
My fingers trembled as I turned the brass knob. I bit my lip, anxiety making my legs shake. Gathering as much courage as I could muster I opened the door and took a small step inside. I listened, intently, for the voices of my parents, yet all I was greeted with was silence. A silence so deafening, it made me afraid.
I took off my shoes, leaving them in a small corner and most carefully to be out of the way of the door. I stood there in the hallway, hesitant. ‘What if they are still mad? Will I be able to make it upstairs before they see me?’
I gripped my shoulder back with my left hand tightly. My fingers fidgeting with the strap and hurried up the stairs. I took two at a time, willing, hoping that no one would notice my return. However, my hopes were clearly dashed, as I heard my mother call out, coldly, “So you’re back.”
I stopped dead in my tracks and turned. My face was already pale, tension visible as my fingers clenched tightly. My nails dug deep into my palms, specks of red slipping down my fingers and to the cream carpeted floor below our feet. A cold sweat began to slip through my skin as I thought desperately of a way to escape the upcoming fight, ‘Maybe if I just say yes, she’ll go away and leave me be...’ I thought, hopefully.
“Yes, ma’am..” I managed to whisper out loud enough for her to hear. I cringed, inwardly as she fixed me with a look.
“Did you ever learn to speak up!!” She snarled, and I felt my tension only worsen. With a small gulp, I scrambled, desperately for a reply only to wind up with nothing.
“I-I was just-” I struggled to form a reply as she leaned in close to me, her hands gripped my shoulders, in a iron grip.
Shaking me, she hissed, her eyes piercing me with their angry gaze, “We don’t need you!! We never wanted you!!!”
‘No...she has to be lying. She’s my mother!! Doesn’t she know how much I need her?!’ I thought, my mind rejecting the truth I had been running from since this whole thing started.
My eyes glistened as tears began to fill them. With a strangled sob of shattered grief, I fled. I ran out of the house and into the street. As I ran, I found myself admitting, that she and Daddy truly meant what they have been saying the past few years. I slowed to a walk, finally soaking up her words. My head swam with every hurtful word and look my parents have given me these past two years.
As I walked, the tension in my stomach grew worse and worse. I could feel it take over like a poison. Soon I doubled over, the pain finally overcoming me. I found myself laying on the sidewalk, the setting sun on my face.
I felt tears fill my eyes as I thought, frantically, ‘I’m scared. Please forgive me, mommy, daddy. I’m sorry for being so bad.’
I heard footsteps and began to panic even more. I fought to get up but I heard Alexis speak softly, “Don’t move..you don’t have the strength. I’ll go get my mom.”
I stared at her, looking in her eyes. I tried to find some hint of anger or rage, but slowly I realized that was foolish of me. I watched as my vision faded as she shouted, walking in some other direction, “Mom? Mom!”
I woke to nothing but white. I squinted, the light hurting my eyes. With a sigh, I remembered what happened. Tears began to leak behind my eyes. I could hear the beeping of the heart monitor. Panic seized me once again, ‘I had to go back!! I have to make things go back to what they are suppose to be!! I’m suppose to make them happy!’
“Izuzu?” I heard someone ask, somewhere to my right. I turned my head and saw a woman with long red hair and kind blue eyes. She had a serene but also stern look about her. I figured this must be Rosa.
“Yes?” I asked, nervously moving away from her. My hands clutching the hospital blanket tightly. My face was pale, a cold sweat blanketed my skin. I just wanted to leave, to go home and make things right.
“You are very sick and need to stay here..you are in no shape to be up and moving around.” Rosa said, her eyes piercing me with a stern look.
“No!! I have to go!!! I have to go back home! I have to make things right!” I shouted, trying to get up, only to collapse, feeling drained of all my energy. ‘What’s happening!? Why can’t I stand up!?’ My anxiety sent my heart rate racing, causing a doctor to rush into the room.
He gently touch my shoulder, pushing me back into the bed carefully. “Ms. Kana please you need to rest. You have suffered a lot of stress and are very weak at the moment.”
I glared at him, wanting to get away when I heard a male’s voice speak up. It was cold, like ice, “Don’t bother coming back home. We don’t want you.”
I turned and saw my father, standing in the doorway. His brown eyes were the same as mine. Only this time the hatred was showing from behind the mask. I could feel it and I know now that they truly never wanted me. I was unwanted by my own family.
My hands shook as they covered my face, tears streaking down my face. They slid down my hands and arms. As I saw my father’s angry eyes with blurry vision, I heard Alexis’s voice come ringing in from the hallway. The anger that rose with them sent me reeling.
“Who the heck do you think you are!!? No one has a right to say such a thing!!! No parent should say something like that to their kid!!!” Alexis stood behind him, her eyes, flaring with indignation.
My eyes took in the scene as tears began to dry. With a soft sigh, I could hear the doctor and Rosa talk. My father was still glaring, my fingers pulled the blanket tightly around me. I watched, slightly hesitant and fearful as Alexis walked up to me. She took hold of my hand. Reflexively, I yanked my hand away, uneasy to the contact.
Slowly, I allowed her to take it again. I stared in her eyes and felt my heart swell with admiration and gratefulness. I looked her in the eyes, allowing the tears, of joy this time, to fall as I whispered, shakily, “Thank you, Alexis.”
She smiled and together we sat like this as the adults continued to fight over what should happen to me. I held on tightly to the comfort of her being here. Slowly I heard several things and felt my heart sink, at my father’s cold words to the doctor.
“If she’s going to stay here, I’m not paying the bills. She’s no longer my child!” My father spat, his eyes mottled with rage.
I flinched, his words shook me to the core. I wanted to run away, to get away from this awful and terrifying reality. Still shaking, I heard the doctor’s outraged but polite voice, ringing in the air, “Sir, please she’s your daughter! Surely you have some courtesy!! She needs medical help!”
I was startled, ‘Why does he care? Especially about me! I’m not important!!’ I thought, disbelief clouding them. My legs unfolded and my feet touched the cold floor of the white room.
I got off, or rather I tried. As I tried to let go of the bed, shifting my weight to my own legs, they shook. Alexis moved, taking my arm in her grasp, keeping me from falling. Legs shaking, tension clawing at my stomach, I walked with her to them.
“Please, just leave it alone. If he doesn’t want to take care of it fine. I don’t need him.” I said, my face steeling myself from the pain the reactions would possibly cause.
“Someone needs to pay the hospital bill you need the treatment, Ms. Kana! Your body is so weak such strain can be very deadly.” The doctor said, looking me straight in the eyes and I realized just how right he was.
I faltered, not knowing how to respond when Rosa finally spoke, her voice calm, “Since your parents have decided to give up their rights who is going to take her in?”
The father turned and gave Rosa a glare, “You. We don’t have any relatives.”
I cringed, moving backwards to the bed. That look of coldness and anger seemed to freeze the words in my mouth. Alexis’s hand gripped mine tightly, comforting me with her presence.
‘Surely they can’t be thinking of leaving me here!?’ I panicked, my breathing turning fast as I felt terror consume me. I hated the hospital and just being in here was scaring me..
Alexis rested her head on my shoulder, whispering softly, “It’s going to be ok, Rin.”
I nodded as I slid my eyes shut and drifted to sleep, feeling Alexis’s warm hand holding onto my own.
Third person’s POV
Alexis stared down at Rin, her eyes dark. She had a thoughtful expression on her face. She held onto her hand, not wanting to leave her new friend.
She turned her head to the arguing adults, seeing Rosa glaring at the father. Her eyes were clouded with frustration, her cheeks flushed with rage. She was fighting very hard for the girl who was currently asleep on the bed.
“Then I will take Rin in myself. As is the job of the Orphanage. I will pay the hospital bills then.” Rosa said, her eyes flashing, daring the two to argue.
The doctor sighed, not liking this at all. Not liking the fact the father and mother had just given up all rights to the child currently in such a bad shape. He glanced at the heart monitor, his eyes sad.
Rosa sighed, glad she had finally gotten the father to leave. She turned to look at the child Alexis was sitting beside. Her face was pale, her heart was rather fast and the pain on her face was clearly visible. Worry ate at her, she worried if the child would be able to surpass this hurtle.
As she headed to her, a letter appeared on the bed. She watched as Alexis’s eyes widen with recognition. She took the letter and glanced at the sender.
The BlackTears Academy
103 Red Thorne Road
Zeven, Germany
“Alexis do you know what this is?” She asked, worried that she would say yes. If that was the case than they had been accepted. She would have to tell her who the people are. Such a terrible burdern to place on such small shoulders.
“Yes...Hope and I got one earlier...” Alexis whispered, her eyes curious. She glanced up at Rosa, whose face was pale, concern and fear written all over it.
“Mom what’s wrong?” Alexis asked, her voice shaking with fear.
“Nothing, dear. Things will be fine.” Rosa said, setting the letter down on the bedside table, deep in thought.
Keep Writing!!! <3
